Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
A few days ago, I watched a short video on social media of German police officers brutally assaulting a pro-Palestinian protester. Their atrocious conduct was immediately reminiscent of the Gestapo, who routinely hounded political enemies, resistance fighters and people of Jewish origin during World War II.
Apparently, this has been going on for several years and is not limited to pro-Palestine or anti-Israel demonstrations. These savage brutes, presumably under government orders, also use the same violent methods against environmental activists. Although Germans have a fundamental right to protest, it seems the government has been applying the law selectively.
A search through YouTube will bring up dozens of clips of police brutality, especially against pro-Palestine or anti-genocide activists. The police officers appear to be under instructions to quell demonstrations with violent force because their actions are so blatant, even while being filmed by the public and the media. Men and women receive the same callous treatment, as the following video attests.
George Orwell provided us with a fitting symbol of authoritarian oppression in his book 1984 with the following chilling image:
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.
There is no better representation of that than the German jackboot. Unfortunately it went much further than that.
While Germany is partially responsible for the First World War and wholly responsible for the second, it also has a wretched history of conducting two genocides in its recent past, one that has gone relatively under the radar between 1904 and 1908, against the Herero and Nama tribes of Namibia, then known as South West Africa.
The genocide we are all familiar with is the Holocaust perpetrated against the Jewish population during World War II. Although Germany acknowledged in 2021 that they recognized the former as a genocide and agreed to pay reparations, they have still not formally apologised.
Meanwhile, Germany has bent over backwards to apologise for the Holocaust and rightfully so. It has been apologising for decades in various ways, including building memorials and paying billions in reparations. It is still displaying remorse up to the present in various ways, some of which go beyond the pale. However, the double standard in their display of contrition towards the different sets of victims is very noticeable and raises serious questions about their motives and humility.
Germany is a significant ally of Israel. It is providing both military and diplomatic support to them despite the overwhelming consensus that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, and its right-wing government is stoking settler violence in the West Bank. Now they’re helping Israel to violently suppress any resistance to their human rights violations and war crimes.
One would think that a country that has a record of conducting two previous genocides would not want to be actively supporting a third. Confoundingly, that is effectively what Germany is doing. They are undeniably complicit.
It would be fair to acknowledge that the German population as a whole should not be held liable for, nor are representative of the actions of their government. Modern governments are after all notoriously distinguished for desecrating the will of the people.
One has to wonder if the German government is justifiably terrified of Israel given their long history of assassinations and its notorious Samson Option. Or is this brutal authoritarianism a natural hangover from its appalling past?
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